


A new world

by everybodyknowsme



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, F/M, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2019-08-07 14:27:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16410176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everybodyknowsme/pseuds/everybodyknowsme
Summary: Clarke found herself with nowhere to go. So when the renowned Raven Reyes looks for volunteers, to explore another planet, she signes up. Little does she know, that this trip will change everything, she knows, the world, her worldview and herself.





	1. Why would you want to go to another planet

Only after filling out the last form to sign her immediate future away, Clarke thought back to find the point in her life, that lead her to this decision.

It could have started as early as her childhood. She was born as the child of two of the greatest in their respective fields, her mother a great surgeon, who had received great praise for successfully recreating haemoglobin; her father at the same time the leading expert in and strongest opponent to nuclear transmutation.  
Thus in school she quickly got a reputation as a teacher's pet. She was not only familiar with the zero-sum-law; that the sum of all energies involved in a spell ALWAYS added up to zero, but was also fluent in gonasleng. When she explained, that she naturally picked it up due to her parents' professions she was promptly nicknamed Princess.

Despite the start, she was glad, she went to a normal school and was not privately taught, as her mother had requested. She learned, that she was a leader: she did not stand by and let her fellow students ruin their grades. Not all were grateful, but they all still all ended up following orders.  
Another thing she learned in school was art. Whether it was tone-crafting, acoustic music, chemical sculpting or manual painting it all drew her in and especially drawing came easily to her.

Though it did not surprise her mother, she was non the less disappointed, when Clarke started studying it in university. About half a year was the last time Clarke listened willingly to Dr. Griffin's advice. Ever since professor Jake Griffin had died in a misfire, miraculously managing to protect his colleagues from sixteen kilograms worth of energy, the two had more and more fights. Clarke never forgave her mother pressuring her husband into working for a council facility, that had not taken security serious enough.  
That did not change the fact, that she did not want to live as an artist. She enjoyed it as a hobby, but it wasn't nearly important enough to her, to make a carrier out of it.  
So she changed her courses to follow in her mother's footsteps and all seemed well. Until a lesson in non-energy-based magic turned her attention to something new: instead of the application her curiosity was now focused on the origin of knowledge.  
And so mere month before her last exam to become a certified physician she changed her courses again to magical theory, physics, chemistry and archaeology, seemingly going after her father now.  
Now she learned about the old ones. The mysterious civilisation that existed about thirty years before the gods raised the known peoples. It was intriguing but after a while she found herself going nowhere, just as her mother decided to no longer to support her studies.

And so quickly finished her training in medicine and become an emergency medic. It was helping people, that gave her the feeling of sense in life.  
Than the wars came back and when she was asked to be a paramedic she said yes and again she learned new things about herself and the world: she was a good fighter, she didn't like it and neither did most soldiers.  
War was rarely fought for reasons, the common people supported or understood. The reason they fought, was because they couldn't risk an enemy army winning. A lesson she should have picked up, when she studied archaeology.  
Here she met the first person, she would let consciously speak for her: Bellamy Blake a wood-elf mercenary, that had joined the side that promised less prejudice against his sister. While unable to see a bigger picture, he was a capable tactician and archer, often times managing to bring his squad into and out of tight situations unharmed.

Then the wars were over again, as quickly as they started and the council was formed and Dr. Griffin became one of the eleven most powerful people in the world, chancellor Jaha being the only person that could give her orders.  
And Clarke, like many other soldiers sat in the barracks and wondered what to do with her life, now that there supposedly everything was great.  
She prayed and professor Raven Reyes answered. Join an expedition to the other side of the solar system.  
The first non-human scientist had proven the existence of anti-earth, the legendary celestial body where the gods created all the other people. That still left the problem, that the destination was always on the other side of the sun. Curiosity, about how she got the council to approve and support this mission, was enough to attract infantry for the scientific part of the crew, which had to solve the problem of first getting everyone to the planet, and then back again.  
The council probably also intended to establish a colony and so they tried to enlist numerous engineers, construction workers, farmers and of course soldiers.  
Lastly there were the actual scientists: botanists and zoologists, that wanted to examine new life forms, astronomers, that couldn't wait to set foot on another celestial body, and of course archaeologists of all sub-disciplines, that wanted to unlock the mysteries of the gods and the old ones.

As Clarke opened the door to apply, she was racking her brain to figure out, for which division.


	2. How to get to a new world pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are about the preparations for the expedition.

She did not get accepted for the position, she had applied for. Instead the parchment argued, that part due to her leadership skills and part due to her having prior experience in all aspects of the expedition, she should fill the role of second in command to the unnamed expedition leader and mediate between him and professor Reyes, who of course would not allow the expedition to leave without her. Clarke suspected, that her mother had favoured her; a suspicion, that was proven, when she was summoned to the mission-command for her last evaluation and saw two familiar faces: Chancellor Jaha, whom she had met at her family home and who had been a friend of her father's, and of course her mother.  
“Hello Clarke, do you know, why you are here?”  
“To determine, if I have both the necessary qualifications as well as will to go on a mission, that will lead away from earth for years at best and kill me, without my family finding out for months at least, at worst. You can't waste the cost it takes to bring someone to another planet on somebody, who can't handle the stress.”  
“Exactly”, said the third person on the board with a friendly smile. Clarke had never met the blonde woman, but she had heard the name on her sign: “Diana Sydney”. Before her mother had thrown her hat in the ring to become the second human councillor, she had been the favourite. Her grass-root origin and her stance on many social issues had cost her the support of the dukes and barons. The fourth person was another stranger with a familiar face: instead of a first name his sign read “General Shumway”. He had given orders to the dwarves during the wars and had spoken out against the peace afterwards, claiming that the council was no permanent solution, especially with a human chancellor.  
Two people were surprisingly absent: Raven Reyes, who had incited the whole operation in the first place; maybe because she intended to join the expedition, she had been excluded from the mission control, which would stay behind.  
This however could not be applied to the high-elven councillor Marcus Kane. When Clarke had first met him, he had been a general and her prisoner of war. For him the war had been a necessary prize for permanent peace, with a global alliance as his goal. Clark had been surprised to meet him at her mother's house. He quickly became a mediator between Abby and Clarke.  
“If you could explain to us, why you think you are qualified.”, Shumway demanded.  
“Besides various theoretical knowledge that would be useful to the expedition like advanced magic and archaeology I also am a certified medical practitioner, with both civil and military experience. In terms of stress resistance I have my military service to show, during which I got promoted to sergeant.”  
Clarke had learned these lines by heart, because she had expected the question and it was the only question that really mattered.  
But Sydney saw it differently: “Ah, about that theoretical knowledge. According to my papers here, you never graduated in these fields. Is that correct?”  
Some part of Clarke started to feel relived, that she would not get one of the highest positions, just because she knew the right people.  
Of course her mother did not see it the same way and looked angry, but kept her mouth shut. Before Clarke could answer the question, chancellor Jaha interrupted her: “Stop this nonsense, Diana. Clarke did not have any training as a surgeon, when she saved my son's life!”  
She paled. She had not known, that Wells had been his son. After an attack their field-surgeon had been dead and Wells hit by multiple arrows. While she could stabilize the other survivors without surgery, he was on the brink of death. And so she broke protocol, removed the arrows and made the flesh fuse back together, where the wounds were life-threatening. When the messenger, that had reported on the results of the battle, returned he gave her the notification, that she had been promoted.  
Saving his life had not stopped Wells from dying. He had frequently disobeyed orders in attempts to help her, so she had requested, that he'd bee transferred to another unit. After the wars, he did not return.  
The interview was continued with empty questions and meaningless answers.  
“Now that that's concluded, do you have any questions, sergeant Griffin?”, Jaha said to conclude the meeting.  
“No, thank you, sir”, Clarke tried to get away.  
“Could you please stay behind for some personal matters?” It wasn't a request, it was an order.

“How are you doing, Clarke?”  
“I'm fine, mum. Why isn't Marcus here? This exactly the kind of initiative he always tries to get going?”  
“He is part of the board, be he thought he was to biased to make a personnel decision regarding you due to bias. So Shumway stands in for him.”  
“Good thing, that doesn't apply for my mother and the best friend of my father. Please tell me, you're not the reason, I'm second-in-command now.”  
“You deserve this position, Clarke. Your position is warranted by your skill”, Jaha cut in.  
“Can you at least tell me, who will me my boss, from now on?”  
“Well naturally, there's us, than, as long as you are still on earth professor Reyes. Regarding the position of prime-commander, we actually had some trouble finding someone. Marcus volunteered, but as a councillor, we of course can't let him go. The same was true for several generals. Of those, that were cleared by their respective governments, most did not want to go. Except one. I never met him in person, but from what I was told you'll be in good hands”, Jaha explained, while proudly displaying the first page of a CV to her. No picture, no date of birth, no mention of standard education and only a chosen name; the document belonged to a respected orc.  
“Her”, Clarke corrected him. She had heard of general Lexa.


	3. How to get to a new world pt.2

While she moved to the campus, her mind was in turmoil. She had heard Lexa's name the first time, shortly after her last promotion. She had been ordered to the eastern front-lines. There Lexa's troops were undefeated. Her mission was to establish a small post within enemy territory, identify the generals location, if possible, relay this information to her CO and lastly to neutralize general Lexa. Clarke had been beyond relieved, when the news of peace reached her, before she had to attack.  
The only one in her squad, that could have possibly moved through the orc camp without being attacked was Octavia. Bellamy's sister, who had lied to several officers about her age, to be allowed even close to the human war camp, and then had snuck into a supply crate without either Clarke's or her brother's knowledge.  
The “plan” had been, for Octavia, to pretend to have caught them, so they could create a distraction, and hope, that Octavia got an opportunity to push a knife into the general, and then they would all die, because none had any idea, how to escape the camp afterwards.

She had finished moving her few belongings into the provided accommodations in time for lunch, so she was well rested, when she came to the first strategic meeting at 14:57. To her surprise, besides the mission-command, there was only one other person: Raven Reyes.  
The young, by elven standards, elf was not wearing the light-coloured robes, typical for both her profession as scholar and her race, but instead the thick fabric and leather of an engineer. Right now she was shovelling something mashed with chunks of pig-meat into her mouth. One of her gloves was lying on the conference table, next to her. She was still wearing the other one.  
Kane noticed Clarke first: “Of course you're early. Seems like you won't have to waste as much time, as you feared you had to, professor.”  
Raven looked up, swallowed and started to speak: “My name is Raven. Ms. Reyes, if you have to be formal. Now, that we're all here...” She opened something out of Clarke's sight and laid a rolled up sheet of paper on the table, “The mission has two key problems: How to get us on the other side of our solar-system and how to communicate with earth, once we're there.  
I have solved the first one. Inertial displacement. Now about the second problem...” she went to open the roll, but was stopped by the confused stares of most of the others.  
She sighted: “Imagine you floated motionless somewhere in the solar-system. To you it would look, like the earth was moving in circles, and spinning around itself at the same time.”  
Jaha interrupted her: “I was under the impression, that the earth's movement was factual?”  
Raven was visually angered: “No, you are not 'under the impression'. You have the knowledge. Due to earth's size in comparison to us, you have the impression, that the earth is either motionless, or moving with a constant velocity. That is called an inertial system. Imagine riding on a cart. If you jumped straight up, you'd land on the same spot, you jumped off.  
I devised a spell, that can momentarily exempt you from your current inertial system. In the example of the cart, now the cart would move away underneath you, because you would not share its velocity. From the cart's perspective you just moved backwards.  
If we apply this spell to the earth's path around the sun, we will travel to the other side of the solar-system in half a year, by being stationary.  
Thanks to me, there is finally a practical application for suspended lose-bond-stasis.”  
“I will not pretend, I understood, how this works. I just assume, that you wouldn't pretend it as a solution, if you couldn't make it work”, Dante said “You wanted to talk about the second problem?”  
“Yes, thank you. Now, the method, we'll use to go there, won't do as a means of communication, because, while being faster than anything we ever did, is not nearly fast enough, to allow for proper cooperation between us and the ground-team.  
What our team did, was look, what the old ones did.”  
“The old ones?”  
“Yes. I am not much of an archaeologist, but apparently they were space-faring. More on that later. The important part is this: They found out, that there is a universal maximal velocity. The speed of light. The idea is, to send concentrated light from anti-earth to earth and back. Now we can't do that on the shortest way, because the sun would be in the way.  
Here it gets interesting: multiple scriptures, that had probably been for schooling, indicate points on earth's orbit, where there is equilibrium. An object, that could be brought on one of these points could be made to stay in place with minimal effort. The position of these points could be calculated for any planet, if you knew its mass, and verified due to clusters of asteroids amassing there.  
Named after the one, who first calculated these points, they are called Lagrange-points. The Lagrange-points described in the scriptures, are not very helpful, as they are fairly far from earth, but don't offer a free line of sight to anti-earth.  
But these points are wrong! And not, because Lagrange made a mistake, but because, when he made his calculations, earth was alone on its orbit! This means, anti-earth came into existence in recent history. Since we find no sings of a mass-panic in regards to that, the logical explanation is, that the old ones themselves created anti-earth, for unknown reasons.”  
“Those of us, that are fond of archaeology already know that. It is, why we are funding this expedition in the first place”, Jaha interrupted.  
“What I wanted to explain, is that on the earth's orbit, there are now not two, but four Lagrange-points, closer to either earth or anti-earth, and thus can be used, to form a line of sight!”  
“So in conclusion, we will communicate with the expedition with naval-relay-buoys. How long will you take, to construct them and bring them into position?”  
“Hard to say. Half of the required technology had been theoretical up until a few weeks ago. The position-correction still is. I'd say at least three years.”  
Some of the board-members had definitely expected a different answer and immediately started shouting.  
Clarke was puzzled. What had they expected? They must have had some kind of conference, before the initiative was started. How could they only now learn, that the goal of the expedition was still years away, but already start recruiting?  
An answer presented itself, when Jaha spoke up: “That is good news. We now have clear goals and can create time-plans to work with, as opposed to the dream you approached me with. So unless you have more to report, I'd suggest, we all get to work. You already explained, what that means for you and your team. For us, that means construct timetables and organizing the preparations for the expedition members.”  
Clarke could no longer keep quiet: “Why am I here? Or do I have a task?”  
The ensuing discussion told her, that the board-members didn't know either. Jaha ended it again: “Your task is to be the main contact for all team-leaders. The security-forces and General Lexa are already on site. I'd suggest you make yourself familiar with them and the campus.”  
“Wait, General Lexa is already on site? Why wasn't she here?”  
“She was called, but her response was, that since her tasks wouldn't change depending on what happened here and she had no expertise in anything related to this meeting, her time was of better use elsewhere.” Kane had stood up and dismissed the other board-members with a few words and had now joined Jaha and Clarke.  
“I am grateful, that the treaty we worked on came into effect, before we lost either of you.”  
“You mean, she took part in that?”  
“It was her idea! Many orc chiefs believed the war to be necessary to strengthen their race in comparison to the other races. The council guarantees, that their power can never shrink below a threatening threshold, while at the same time keeping overambitious people in check. She might have been an applicant for her current position, due to her military career, but I supported her, for her diplomacy.”  
“I hope, she doesn't know, that I was about to murder her.”  
“You shouldn't worry about that. I hope general Shumway did not overstep?”  
“No. He and Sydney were the only ones, that asked real questions. I can't shake of the feeling I was let on project to easily.”  
“With your mother, Jaha and me as board-members, that's understandable. But I can assure you, that you got into this position, because you were more qualified than the other candidates. Now, am I correct to assume, that you would like to avoid, staying, until Abby turns around? After all, you now have a job to do,” Marcus winked at her.

With it now being her official task, Clarke decided to make herself at home on the campus. First she tried to do so on foot. A mistake. The campus was huge. She had now been wandering around for hours without meeting anybody, save for a few maintenance workers. She decided a day and use up her pent up energy in the training-hall, she had seen on her way.  
She ignored the bicycle parked next to the entrance and didn't notice, that one of the lockers was already taken.  
The building was divided into multiple rooms for different kinds of trainings. There was a huge room, for team-exercises, track-running or field games. There was a large pool of water for swimming and diving. There was a room with a patted floor for sparring, completely with weapon-racks, stocked with wooden sticks, blunted swords, maces, shields and even bows.  
Clarke had spent the entire day on her feet, and brought neither a change of clothes nor a sparring-partner, so she went for the last room.  
She opened the door and saw an ass. It belonged to an orc woman doing chin-ups on a high-bar. She was wearing short cut training clothes, that were stretched by her moving muscles. On her back was a large back-pack, that obscured the view to the back of her head, with a pigtail falling of her left shoulder.  
She pulled herself up slowly, until her head was above the bar, then, just as slowly, made a sit-up motion, until her feet were in front of her face on the other side of the bar. She stayed in this position for a few seconds and returned to her resting position in slow, controlled motions.

Clarke watched two repetitions, before she realised, that she had been staring for half a minute. She looked around and went for a machine, designed to train the shoulder muscles, that just so happened to give her a great view.  
Some time went by, and Clarke had to stop. Her shoulders felt, like they were about to fall of, and she already rued the soreness she would feel the next day. She sat on a training wheel, doing her best to not use her arms, and could see her reflection in the window. Her shirt was drenched in sweat, she should have went back to her apartment and picked up a change of clothed. Now she couldn't really shower, before she had to put on her coat. She considered, going to the pool, but then the orc woman moved into her view again. She was again facing away from Clarke. Clarke curiously watched, as she set down her backpack and arranged weights on a bar. She was surprised to see, that the woman only set 10 kg per side onto the bar to lift.  
Again the orc made deliberate motions and repeated them.  
First she squatted down to grab the weight. She stood up, thus lifting it to hip-level. Back to squatting-position, keeping the weight in position using her arms, so it was now on shoulder height. Standing back up. Raising the weight all the way up. Lowering it back down step by step again.  
With the backpack out of the way, Clarke could freely admire her flexing muscles. Her skin was of a dark green colour, similar to an olive. It was covered with little sweat, which was one of the differences between orcs and humans. Orcs had literally thicker skin and much fewer sweat-glands. That was an advantage, when water was scarce, but during the war, that meant, that humans could easily outlast orcs on a hot day.  
So when Clarke hit her limit, this time in her tights, she felt a tinge of shame, as the other woman kept going with no sign of tiring.  
On wobbly legs Clarke retreated back to the lockers. She collapsed on a bench and did her best to open her locker and put on her cloak and boots, with her shoulders still aching. Then she heard someone pouring a bucket of cold water over herself. Moments later the door was opened by a naked, wet orc woman and Clarke was glad she could blame her flushed face onto the exercise.

She completed tying her boots, looked up and for the first time looked at the face of the orc woman. A face she had seen on a picture in a dossier in the last month of the war.


	4. How to get to a new world pt.3

When Clarke woke up, she regretted life. Her chest seemed determined to push her arms out of the sockets and her legs felt at the same time, as if they had been ripped of and swollen to thrice their usual size.  
Then she remembered the dread, with which she had fallen asleep and let out a long groan. A familiar voice reminded her, that she had been woken up by a knock on the door: “Clarke, I know your in there! Open up!”  
Clarke heaved herself to the door, looked through the peep-hole and sure enough saw the mint green face of none other than Octavia Blake.  
She opened the door.  
“O, what are you doing here?”  
“Same as you Princess, I work here.” Octavia saluted and said with evident pride: “Meet contact-officer Blake! I technically outrank you!”  
“What are you on? Back in the day you were civilian and we treated you as a private. I was sergeant, a position to which I got promoted, because I knew the right people. And right now I am second-in-command only to mission-command.”  
“Ah, but the mission has not started yet, so that doesn't apply. And as contact-officer between the army of the snake throne and the army of the tree-clan I am only bound by direct orders from either general Lexa or high-general Indra, which makes me lieutenant-general! You failed to salute an allied military official, who outranks you!” she playfully hit Clarke in the stomach, who could no longer keep standing, her sore legs giving in beneath her.  
Octavia caught her by her collar, before she hit the floor. When she realised, that her friend was fine, save for her legs and shoulders, she sat her down on her bed.  
“So you became a full time soldier. How did you end up here?”  
“Do you remember, how I enlisted for the army?”  
“I'm pretty sure, I wasn't present then?”  
“That's a no. It was during our last week.”  
“You mean during that super awkward peace party?”  
“Exactly. We all got pretty drunk there. What do you remember?”  
“Let's see: General Lexa didn't attend, Jaha held a bunch of pretentious speeches, Marcus prevented him from being lynched, I remember that we went past a few tables of orcs and they said something. I think it was some kind of racist slur, because your mother was not an orc? And I think we got in a brawl about it.”  
“Close enough. They called me a traitor because I killed orcs, while myself being an orc. Bellamy and you were already quite drunk by then, so you called them boars and went to drink more.”

Clarke went red from embarrassment. “Boar” was already a rude slur, but with Octavia present it was as insensitive as it got, considering that, with her bright green skin, her bristly dreadlocks, which she always kept wet, to cool her head, her tusks in combination with her small chin and last but not least her upturned nose, she looked exactly like the stereotypical orc. Even more so now.  
It hadn't been a whole year but the military service had made Octavia swell up. She could nearly fill out the door frame alone, her posture made it look, like she had grown a few centimetres and her military fatigues were designed to make their wearer look brutal.

“Anyway, a few minutes later and the buffet is empty, save for sludge of course, so you have the bright idea, to start a food fight. The orcs from before agree, that this is a great use for sludge and liquefy their table to return fire. Now both sides were having fun, except I was still sober, so I kinda didn't wanted to be covered in goo. I try to make you stop and we're back to insulting. So I lit the sludge on fire. Then I explained them, that Bellamy had tried his best, to make me an orcish citizen before the war, and they had not wanted me then, so if they had a problem with me fighting for those, that welcomed me, they could make their points one at a time in the ring.  
Honestly that went better, than it should have. Instead of all of them challenging me to a duel, Indra came to me. She called the decision of the chieftain back then a mistake, that she intended to rectify. She was pretty upfront. She straight up told me, that she couldn't naturalise Bellamy, at best give him a permanent visa. I could either leave this city as an orcish second-lieutenant or as a half-human civilian.  
I was awake all night thinking about it and when Bellamy woke up I told him my decision and said goodbye.”  
“That explains, how you joined the army, but how the hell did you rise through the ranks this fast?”  
“By trying!” Octavia laughed. “No, for real, a big chunk of the higher-ups retired after the war, so promotions were frequent, and the alliance-army was split back up again, so they had great need for impartial, qualified personnel. That's enough for now. Do you want to grab breakfast with me? I'm starving.”  
“Food sounds good. I found a mess-hall yesterday, but it wasn't furnished yet.”  
“Yeah this place is huge. I'll get you a map after breakfast, let's go!”  
“But that would mean standing up!,” Clarke complained.  
Octavia just grinned and ran out. Clarke tried to follow her, but had only reached the door, when she saw Octavia returning, pushing a wheel barrow, she must have taken from one of the construction sites.

After O. had placed Clarke against her will in the barrow she pushed it at a brisk pace in one direction while continuing their conversation from before.  
“Do you know, what the snake throne is?”  
“Is it more, than the name of the eastern alliance?”  
“Way more. Well firstly, it was the throne of literal snakes, in the city of pillars; The lamia built it after conquering it from the harpies. The neighbouring clans and tribes formed the first alliance to fight back. They did so by getting themselves enslaved on purpose and killing the snakes in their sleep. This way they were just about the only ones, to actually recover their captives. So the initial plan had been, to knock down the city, as soon as the captives had been evacuated, but Gorgo, the one that had come up with the plan to let themselves be captured, was like, fuck it, and declared the city of pillars the capital of the allied tribes and herself as queen. And pretty much everybody present was like, damn straight, we earned this city and we owe it to her, she is the smartest among us.  
Later, when Gorgo was getting old, there was the question, who would be the next king or queen. In case you are not aware, but orcs find the concept of inheritance stupid, so the heir couldn't just be some relative. Almost every tribe in the alliance chose their chieftain in a different manner, so that was out. Then they had a realisation: the city of pillars was empty most of the time, so why not leave the throne itself empty, until someone can claim it again. And so it has been empty ever since, because the few people that are respected and honourable enough to claim it, don't want to.”  
“So during the war all armies were absorbed into the alliance army under Lexa's command and afterwards one army was turned into a dozen?”  
“Pretty much. The important part is, that they needed contact-officers to communicate between the individual armies. And since the contact-officers have to be reliable in every way, but also impartial in regards of the tribe on whose behave they speak, I was the ideal candidate for the tree-clan. So when they were looking for volunteers for this mission, Lexa immediately recommended me.”  
“What about Bellamy? He was pretty into history, is he here to?”  
Octavia laughed again and sat the barrow down. She helped Clarke stand up.  
“He was trying to become an archaeologist, when I told him about this mission. He was so jealous, because by the time, he even got so much as an acknowledgement, that they received his application, I was already here.”  
“Bellamy is coming here?”  
“Did you not stay in contact with the gang at all? Bellamy kept me mostly up to date. Almost the entire crew is coming!”  
Clarke didn't know, how to feel about meeting them again. Due to the low chances of success for their last mission, they had voted to ignore their orders and try and sabotage the orcish supply-lines.  
She had pretended to respect their opinion and lead them in another direction. Then Jasper found out, that she had planned on manoeuvring them into a position, where they could do nothing but follow the original plan. He had kept it to himself for some time, but the fight, that broke out, when they last met, was not due to alcohol.  
Clarke didn't notice, that Octavia gave her two meals, to hold onto, but kept another two herself.  
“I thought, we'd eat in the mess-hall?”  
“There are better places.”  
They kept talking a little, as they walked through a much busier part of the campus.  
As a chemist and a mechanic respectively Jasper and Monty had both made into 'Pioneer-corps'.  
Most of the others, like Harper, Miller or Atom had gotten in as simple farmers or workers, as well. The Pioneer-corps had barely any requirements, but people with a military background were preferred, because the destination could well be dangerous.  
Since Bellamy as an archaeologist had applied to the 'Science-corps', his application was still being processed.  
They were going towards a barrack, that was emitting music. It was only a single string-instrument, playing a fast-paced piece in one of the styles of the old world. Octavia opened the door, and closed it, as soon as Clarke had taken her first step inside.  
She cleared her throat, to make the musician look up from her sheets.  
“Commander, lieutenant-general Blake and vice-commander Griffin reporting for duty!”  
“At ease. Very good Octavia, you are dismissed.”  
Octavia grinned and left Clarke alone with general Lexa.  
It appeared, the general didn't feel much more comfortable than Clarke. For a few seconds she just stood there, ramrod-still.  
Finally, she spoke: “Due to our positions, we will likely have to work together frequently and closely, so when I heard, you arrived, I gave lieutenant-general Blake the order to bring you here at your earliest convenience, so we could get acquainted. I've read your dossier and I trust, you read mine.”  
Clarke's discomfort lessened a little, when she realized that Lexa had not had anything to do either and called for her in hopes of doing something productive. That still left the elephant of their first meeting in the room.  
She held up the packages with the meals, Octavia had given her.  
“I was about to eat, when Octavia brought me here.”  
Lexa accepted one of the meals, set it on a table and motioned her to take a seat, while she produced two sets of cutlery from a drawer.  
Clarke took the time, to look around. The room had the same size and furniture as hers: a bed, a sink, a wardrobe, drawers, a strongbox, three chairs, a worktable by the wall and the round table she was sitting at right now. The chair, that belonged to the worktable, stood in the middle of the room. In front of it was a note-stand, next to it a stand for a cello.  
“I have the impression, that Octavia neglected to tell you, you were about to meet me.”  
“She only invited me to eat with her and promised me to give me a map of the campus. I tried to simply explore it on foot yesterday.”  
“I suggest, you lend a bicycle at the messenger-office. That's what I did. The main advantage is, that I don't have to go work out in the same gyms as the entire rest of the security forces.”  
“How many gyms are here?”  
“Seven. The one closest to here is strictly for official training exercises, the next two are constantly overrun. I go to the one...”  
Lexa fell silent and blushed, not that Clarke could really tell the latter.  
She spoke again: “I believe we did meet before. Did you happen to exercise yesterday, around 21:00?”  
Clarke's blush was back in full force.  
“Yes.”  
“So it was you on the machines. I can't blame you for not starting a conversation then.”  
Clarke fled the conversation as quickly as she politely could.


	5. How to get to a new world pt.4

She was not looking for Octavia, but found her anyway. She and a male orc, a hulking man with a shaved head, were scolded by a veteran, Clarke picked up from context must be Indra:”... The rules are clear: Fuck all you want on your off time, but during your shift, you keep your hands off each other!”  
“Yes, Ma'am!”  
“Yes, Ma'am!”  
“Lincoln, this week you do Shift 13.”  
“Ma'am,..”, Octavia tried to complain.  
“I may no longer have the authority, to discipline you myself, but if another word comes out of your mouth, I will bring the shift plans to general Lexa for approval personally.”  
“Yes, Ma'am.”

“What was that about?”  
“Indra caught me making out with Lincoln on the job again.”  
“What was that about the 'shift plans'?”  
“Well as contact-officer between Indra and Lexa, I took the freedom to find out, where my boyfriend is stationed, so I could visit him during long and boring shifts, before passing it on to the general for approval.”  
“Won't you get into trouble?”  
“Nah, I've done worse. I once made Lincoln miss a drill. Boy, Indra was pissed then! She levied my horse, so I had to walk all the way to the first outpost on foot. After a hundred kilometers of marching in one day, I had learned better, than to get Lincoln into a position, where he couldn't respond to emergencies in time. But S13 is night shift on the far side of Campus, so I will barely be able to see Lincoln this week.”  
“Well, you could have eaten with me and prepared me for meeting Lexa ahead of time, then Indra would not have caught you!”  
“Oh no, that was necessary payback, for what you did!”  
“How about I tell you how the meeting went down and you try to forgive me?”, Clarke offered hopelessly.  
Octavia burst out laughing:” How are you so bad at negotiating for yourself? You nearly talk us into your suicide mission, but now you not only give away, that there's tea, but also offer to spill it for free!”  
Clarke could not resist and hugged her friend.  
“Thank you. Will you help me with the others?”  
“Of course. They didn't like it, but they understand. Mostly.”  
“You're the best!”  
“Don't say that yet, I still take you up on your offer. Spill!”  
“Not here! At my place.”

“Wait, bragging doesn't sound like her. What were her exact words?”  
“'I can't blame you.' Now please start laughing, so I can get it over with.”  
“'I can't blame you', are you sure?”  
“Why does it matter?” Octavia had a weird expression on her face, somewhere between a grin and a serious face.  
“Come on Princess, you should know! Your entire family is on the Council! Jaha is like your uncle!”  
“Hey, Jaha and mum are not good at social cues!”  
“Don't care. What do you know about orcish?”  
“They got rid of double meanings. Every word has exactly one meaning.”  
“Close enough. And what does 'blaming someone' mean?”  
“It means suggesting that someone has caused something bad to happen, which could have been avoided.”  
“By doing something, the accuser would not have done.”  
“And?...”  
“Let me try again: What does 'I don't blame you' mean?”  
“That I did something wrong, but you don't hold it against me.”  
“Correct. Now, what does 'I shouldn't blame you' mean?”  
“That I did something wrong, but you would have made the same mistake.”  
“Correct. Would do you conclude is the condition to be able to blame you?”  
“That I made a mistake, you did not and would not do yourself.”  
“And so 'I can't blame you' means?”  
“That she didn't start a conversation either!”  
Octavia fell over trying not to laugh out loud.  
When she caught herself, she replied calmly:”Now, it might be, because I'm shipping, but do you think it is possible, that Lexa wasn't talking about what you didn't do, but what you did do?”

Clarke wanted it to be true, but on the other side was afraid, of Lexa being purely professional. She had always had a fantasy about the general, ever since she had heard of her. That the Lexa would capture her, tie her up in her bedroom...  
Clarke's mind snapped back to pacing up and down in front of Lexa's barrack, when Octavia knocked on the door and ran away.  
“Vice-commander Griffin! What brings you here?”  
“It's more of a private matter, commander. May I come in?”  
“Of course. In non-official matters you may address with just my name.”  
“Thank you, call me Clarke then.” They sat down.  
“I misunderstood you earlier. So Octavia helped me understand, what you could have meant and I would like to be sure, that I am not wrongly interpreting.”  
Lexa blushed and now that she was paying close attention, Clarke actually noticed.  
“When you said, that you could not blame me for not initiating a conversation, did you mean, that you did the same thing I did?”  
“May I be blunt?”  
“Of course.”  
“You have the excuse, that you only saw the back of my head.”  
“But” Lexa raised her hand to interrupt Clarke.  
“I could see you the entire time in the window. I should have seen your face, but instead I only saw your wet shirt sticking to your chest.”  
It took some time, before either of them brought out another word.  
After what felt like ten minutes of awkward silence, Lexa spoke again: “You know, that wasn't the first time, I thought of you like that... Oh god, this is so embarrassing...”  
“I had sex dreams about you, when I was supposed to kill you!”, Clarke blurted out, her hands clasping over her mouth as if to try and catch the words again.  
Another moment of silence.  
“Was it about me, capturing you in the act?”  
“Yes. You'd disarm me, strip me and tie me up to your bed.”  
Lexa's hand wandered beneath the table.  
“I had mine, when I read your dossier. It took place in a similar way to yours, but the other way around: you ambushed me, captured me. For 'interrogation'. But you wouldn't ask questions, but instead make me wake up wet.”  
They were both flushed now.  
“What does it say about us, that we dreamt about being captured and enslaved by the other?”  
Lexa grinned, which gave Clarke an odd feeling coming from this woman, that was one of the highest ranking, most powerful people on the planet.  
“That we're into each other?”  
“Yes...”  
Lexa stood up, unbuttoned her shirt and came around the table towards Clarke: “Do you want to act on it?”

Clarke woke up sore for the second time in a row. This time not in her bed and with Lexa laying on top of her and hair in her mouth.


	6. New friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa are just friends

The morning was pretty awkward. Neither of them spoke to the other as Clarke washed herself, got dressed and left. Lexa had pretended to be still asleep, after Clarke had rolled her off of her, though Clarke was certain, that she was awake.  
She went to get break-fast at the mess-hall Octavia had shown her the previous day. The others there stared at her. First she thought, it was, because she was not an orc. After taking a few glances around, she could tell, that that was not the case; While the majority of the security-forces were members of an orcish army, she could also see humans, dwarves and even a few elves.  
Then Octavia showed up and made a beeline directly for her. A group of orcs whisper-shouted something at her, she answered and continued on. The orcs picked up there tablets and followed her, looking over her shoulders as if they were taking cover.  
“You bent over Lexa?!”  
“I don't think, I should talk about this here and now.”  
“If she didn't want you to brag, she would have been quiet.”  
“I am not in my room yet, so technically, this is still 'walk of shame'. No talking!”  
“Both your lay and the one talking are not human. Human social norms do not apply.”  
Octavia had taken a chair and sat down, while her entourage had not dared to move closer.  
“This is a personal matter. It's not getting discussed while strangers are within earshot.”  
“You heard the boss! Scram!”  
The group saluted and ran back to their table.  
“Now talk. But no details. If I want to know details about a sexy orc lady, I'd look into a mirror.”  
“I'm not sure, if I should talk to you about that, though.”  
“Just the basics. Did you?”  
“Yes.”  
“Was it good?”  
“Yes.”  
“Why are you already up?”  
“I think, that it was only a one time thing for her. When I got up she pretended to be asleep for the entire time.”  
“Nah, that was, because it's her day off.”  
“What?”  
“First of the month is her day of. She refuses to get up before ten and won't do anything that could be considered work for the entire day.”  
“That sounds, as if there was a story.”  
“There is: on my first day as contact-officer I didn't know her yet and was supposed to report for duty. So I go through the city asking for directions and everybody mostly laughs at me, but those cunts of course don't explain shit. So here I am at eight sharp knocking on her office. Two and a half hours later she comes through the corridor. She's wearing a pyjama her hair is a mess and she carries a tablet with nothing but berries, honey and two jugs of milk. I of course didn't recognize her. She goes 'What are you doing in front of the generals-office?'  
'I have orders to report to the general'. She groans, presses the tablet into my hands, fishes the key from her pocket and opens the door, takes the tablet goes in and sits down at her desk. I realized who she was and opened to mouth and before can say anything, she goes 'dismissed, come back tomorrow.'”  
“In that case I'll try to talk to her during lunch. Until then, can we talk about what we'll do when I meet the squad again?”  
Octavia wanted to answer, when her eyes popped out of her face. There, at shortly past seven at her day off, was general Lexa, wearing day-clothes and putting bread on her tablet. The rest of the hall noticed as well and got quiet except for a few whispers, that explained the significance of this sight to those not in the know. She looked over the crowd, recognized Octavia and the blonde head of her sitting opposed to her, waived and came over.  
Clarke finally turned around and was slack-jawed as well, but for a different reason. In her opinion Lexa in uniform had been as sexy as one could be when clothed. Both her stature and her face radiating authority and power had been enough to literally get her out of her pants. But Lexa in civil was beautiful. She had a warm smile, her long her was openly flowing past her shoulders instead of being tightly knotted to her skull, she was wearing comfortable looking sleeveless shirt and wide pants, both brightly coloured. The cloth went so well together, that Clarke had first thought, that Lexa was wearing a gown. While in uniform, her appearance was like the crack of a whip, she was now like a summer breeze.  
She said something.  
Clarke was looking at her lips, bathing in the sound unable to process anything.  
Not that Clarke would notice, but Octavia could not believe what she was witnessing:  
“May, can, you, I sit next to, I, please?”  
“What?”  
“What?”  
“Yes?”  
“Thank you.”  
Lexa sat down and they continued staring at each other while emitting approximations to speech. Octavia couldn't bear it, she had to get help. She found Indra in her office.  
“Indra, you have to help me!”  
“Not 'General Indra, I require your assistance'?”  
“No it's a personal matter, more or less.”  
“Is it personal or not?”  
“It's about Lexa, but it is personal.”  
“So what do you want me to do, while she is asleep?”  
“She slept with Clarke Griffin.”  
“Your former squad leader?”  
“Yes. Technically your CO”  
“So what. They both ought to be able to separate work and off-time, unlike someone.”  
“They are worse than hormonal teenagers.”  
Indra raised a single eyebrow.  
“What? I am a hormonal teenager and those two are worse!”  
“You know better than entering Lexa's rooms on her day of before ten.”  
“They are in both in the mess-hall doing what I have to assume is flirting!”  
Indra stood up so quickly, that she nearly threw over her table.  
“No. Way!”  
“You believe me?”  
Indra walked at a brisk pace towards the mess-hall.  
“This has only happened once before. Lexa was fourteen and still in training, when she had a relationship. After a sleepover Costia managed to get Lexa out of bed at eight-thirty. Once. Lexa complained the entire time and during future sleepovers she would hold onto Costia like a python, so she had no choice but to stay in bed until ten. In the end, that was, why they split up.”  
“Clarke did not try, to get her out of bed.”  
Indra stopped so abruptly, that Octavia nearly ran into her.  
“She's even wearing clothes!”  
Lexa and Clarke had finished break-fast and were now walking side by side. Their words had evolved into proper speech and they were talking to each other about music and laughing at each others jokes.  
“Do you have any idea, where they are headed?”  
“It looks to me, like they are just meandering.”  
“Impossible! Clarke doesn't go for walks. She calls it 'walking in circles', or 'waiting if you don't own chairs'.”  
Clarke and Lexa were going for a walk. In the morning on Lexa's day off.  
Indra and Octavia would not have admitted stalking them, but they definitely were following them in shifts throughout the day.  
Octavia was surprised to see Clarke say goodbye to Lexa and not enter her barrack. She 'randomly' ran into Clarke, as she was making her way back to her own barrack.  
“Hey! Not going back to Lexa?”  
“It's not like I wouldn't like to, but she's got work tomorrow and we both knew, we wouldn't start sleeping in time.”  
Clarke raised her arms and waived her open hands back and forth. Two sounds formed from the resulting air draft, at first clashing a little, but quickly getting into harmony and forming a nice tune.  
“You're tone-crafting?”  
“Yes. I learned it when I was studying art. Lexa talked me a little bit into music.”  
“She doesn't do tone-crafting though.”  
“Yes, she prefers playing large instruments. This way, she can only do one thing at a time. So if she's playing music, she's doing nothing but playing music. That's why she's making music in the first place. There is no objective use to it. It is entirely a hobby. I'm not that strict though...”  
“I always liked your doodles.”  
Clarke laughed: “Don't worry, I still prefer drawing. I do think, I got Lexa into art! Though she did say she wouldn't touch a pencil for something different than sketching a map.”  
They reached Clarke's barrack.  
“See you tomorrow.”  
“Yeah, bye.”

Their respective schedules couldn't keep Lexa and Clarke apart for long. They met at the procurement office. Clarke was requesting a tripod and some canvasses. Lexa had her forms already filled out, when she came in. She waited until Clarke was done, before she greeted her.  
“Hey!”  
“Nice to see you! What are you doing here?”  
“I work here! As do you!”  
They both laughed.  
“No. To be serious. You told me yesterday that we'll be spending at least three years here, before we'd actually start our job, so I figured I'd get comfortable.”  
“And here I thought your Cello was your idea of getting homely.”  
“I take that with me everywhere. I don't know yet, how I will bring it to anti-earth, though. You've got it easy. Pencils and paper are available everywhere! Though I have to admit, that I didn't actually order an instrument but rather an art and craft project I always wanted to do.”  
“An art project? What do you mean?”  
“You'll see soon enough. I regret, that I didn't place the order earlier, than I might have been able to get started before the other corps come.”  
“Do we finally have a date for that?”  
“The plan was for every corps to be brought on site, as soon as it was fully staffed, but chancellor Jaha prioritized the security forces and of course the scientists had to get to work as quickly as possible. What they ended up doing was handling everything, that wasn't science or security as pioneer, so the personnel that handled those applications were quite understaffed. Then they split up the science-corps into the group, that is already here, those who get us to anti-earth, and the rest. And then they tried to 'save resources' by sending personnel home, which meant the screening took longer.”  
“But now they are done?”  
“The tickets have gone out. The others should come in over the next week.”  
“Oh man, there are some reunions I'm not looking up to.”  
“Your old squadron?”  
“Yes. You admire my ability to choose duty and the greater good over me and my friends life, but...”  
“I'd offer to stand by your side, but I can't imagine that my presence would calm your friends. Aside from Octavia that is.”

It turned out, that neither of them had time to worry about that for long, as the chancellor had ordered them to write a speech each for the orientation event, which would take an entire day. This of course meant coordinating with Indra, Raven, a dwarven woman named Zoe Monroe, who was in charge of the pioneer corps, and last but not least the other members of the board.  
One letter contained good and bad news: The board-members had considered it unreasonable that every one of them would hold a speech and thus had decided, that, besides Jaha, only two of them would hold speeches. One of them was Marcus Kane. The other was Abigail Griffin.

They were in the same meeting room the board had met with Raven the first time. Monroe and Lexa had never been in this room and so sat down on two of the board chairs. Clarke wasn't really surprised to see Marcus greet everyone in the room like a friend, after all she already knew, that he and Lexa were familiar with each other, it made only sense, that he knew Monroe as well. After greeting everyone he took Mrs Griffin's hand, who was taken aback, because Monroe was sitting in “her” chair, and lead her to two chairs so she could sit down next to him.  
“Thanks for inviting us. Am I correct to assume, that none of you look particularly forward to holding a speech?”  
There was some murmur but the main answer were nods.  
“Then I'd say Abby and I will cover the formal aspects and each one of you focuses on an introduction.”  
Monroe stood up: “My name is Zoe Monroe. I am from Semet, the dwarven kingdom in the mountains of the northern offland. If any of you are from Semet as well, you most likely have already heard of me, because I was the botanist, who pinpointed the ideal conditions for black piscifungus and also the engineer that devised the capitol moist-wall-plantation....”  
She continued talking about her work and her military service. When she was done she faced Marcus expectingly.  
He looked at the clock. “The total time is good. I'd suggest cutting a few of things, that are not as important to you out, so you can explain your position and role a bit better. Maybe talk about what you hope to achieve with your teams in the expedition.”  
Clarke was impressed. Monroe was, similarly to Raven, not from a background that warranted public speaking, yet her impromptu performance had been good.  
Lexa spoke up next: “Hello my name is Lexa, general of the Snake-throne. I will have the honour of leading you, when we set foot onto a new planet. I want to be honest with you: Nobody knows, what's waiting for us there and therefore nobody knows, whether I am a good choice as your commander. There is a chance, that we will encounter hostile environment or even life. In this case my military expertise will be a necessity. I am experienced in organising military campaigns, combat, keeping soldiers in line and making tough decisions. And there is a chance, that none of this will be needed. Maybe the entire planet is covered in ruins and abandoned buildings. In this case I will likely take a step back for doctor Griffin.” Lexa pointed at Clarke.  
“Please, doctor Griffin is my mother. My name is Clarke. I am a medical doctor and during the war I got promoted up to the rank of sergeant. The board seems to consider me a polymath due to my studies in archaeology and art. My main job is to communicate with the team leaders, for which my more basic education should suffice...”  
Her mother grimaced. She had always criticized Clarke for wasting her potential and naturally didn't like her daughter belittling herself. Oddly enough Raven and Monroe had a look of bewilderment on their faces, not like they took offence that someone much less qualified than themselves would be their superior, but more like she looked different than they had expected.

Indra's speech was short. Of course she didn't feel that there was much to say. She had spent her entire life in the military. If there was hostile life, she would keep them safe. She was of course aware, that her main purpose was to enforce discipline, but her experience had taught her how to do that better than by explicitly saying it.  
Raven struggled. Her first version was “Hello, you're here because of me. Let's get to work!”. Marcus interrupted her second version, when she was two minutes into explaining, how she had calculated the distance from the surface they would “re-materialize” after the loose-bond-stasis.  
Clarke and Monroe could emphasis with her. As a scientific expert she was likely used to her speeches being about a specific academic subject where she would lecture her audience for at least a full hour. That she was expected to hold the longest speech of anyone present wasn't helping either.  
When she finished, she turned to Abby and Marcus.  
“I think we'll leave it at that.” She went to stand up, when she noticed everybody still looking at her.  
She pulled a sheet of paper out of her vest.  
“Marcus and I are politicians. We already wrote our speeches and segmented them, so we can adjust them depending on what you or Thelonious are going to say. Unless you want to hear them now...”  
There was agreeing murmur and everybody stood up and Marcus spoke again: “Clarke, you should catch up with your mother!”  
Clarke wanted to protest, but she saw a look, that she had rarely seen directed at her: He needed to make a serious conversation, that was none of her business. So she accepted her fate and saw him leaving the room with Lexa and Indra.  
Before her mother could talk to her Raven was there: “I thought you were 'the' Clarke Griffin!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“'Basic education', I thought you were the author of 'de origine gentium'! That's why I wanted you on the team!”  
Clarke was taken aback. She had indeed written a scientific paper with that title. It was during the time she had studied archaeology. It was supposed to be a graded paper with a word limit of 16000, but only after turning it in, she had noticed, that her main text had been still about a thousand words to long, even though she had already moved a lot into the appendices and footnotes. Instead of writing a new paper she had changed her classes.  
To her dread Abby explained: “She wrote it, but instead of turning it in as her dissertation she did it as a graded paper. I spoke to the professors. They agreed that it was to substantial for a graded paper, so I pulled a few parts from the footnotes back into the main text and they handled it as your dissertation, ready to declare her professor as soon as she would turn in a smaller paper for the grade.”  
She had addressed Raven the, but faced Clarke the entire time.  
If Raven noticed the tension, she chose to ignore it: “Wow, you two are my heroes. I'd like to claim, that you, councillor Griffin were my inspiration, but I had not yet heard of you, when I made the decision to go into science, but when I read, that you managed to synthesize all 21 amino acids! That got me going! I said to myself, that if our minds can create things, that are to nuclear for our cells to make, than there is no question in the universe, I'll ever accept as unanswerable! And you!”, She turned to Clarke.  
“Your book was what made me start this whole thing. And I have to admit, it feels great to read, that I wrote history.”  
“I honestly never thought, it would become such a big deal. I was curious, why I only ever heard of human scientists so I did some digging and when I had to write a paper I thought I'd put my private research to use.”  
Raven began objecting to referring to Clarke's research as “some digging”. Clarke had examined corpses and all kinds of tissue samples, even looking into DNA-analysis, to see whether human brains worked in any way different than those of the other races, be it because they were differently shaped or supplied by different quantities or concentrations of nutrients. Then she read about Raven Reyes, the elf who had been responsible for the knowledge, that light could take the properties of a particle with mass and therefore, even without magic, it was possible to turn mass into energy and the other way around.  
This meant, that even if the norm was a biological quirk, that prevented non-humans from formulating scientific theories, than it was such a minor deviation, that random chance mutation could correct it. Which meant that Raven Reyes could have been the only non-human biologically able to be a scientist. Which meant, that the reason, there were no non-human scientists before that, was not biological. And so she examined society and culture. And she found, that in comparison to the old ones, an extremely large part of modern humans were scientists, but if she compared the entire world population, there appeared to be roughly equivalent numbers. In both cases only those with the best perspectives actually became researchers. And culture explained, where the biased had come from: the gods had told the humans, that their intelligence was their greatest asset, so they became scientists. Elves were told about wisdom so they became historians, dwarves became engineers and orcs became warriors. But the gods had been proven to be idiots and so the influence of their teachings lessened and it was only a matter of time, until the first non-human would work to satisfy her curiosity about the world.  
Clarke decided to stop Raven. She didn't like being put on a pedestal: “If you read it, than you know, that I don't think lowly of your accomplishments either, but I'd rather not get into an escalation of admiration.”  
“No sorry. Marcus said, you should talk to your mother and I interrupted you. If you want you can visit me at any time. My apartment is just a few hundred meters from here and you can't miss the labs!”  
With that she was gone.  
“So much about grand-kids. At least I can brag about my daughter-in-law.”  
“What?!”  
“I may not understand you, but Marcus does and I understand him. Not that I object to her, but you know her for two days at most!”  
“Mum, stop acting like Lexa is my fiancée! My private relationship with her is strictly physical, though I do have the impression we are becoming friends.”  
“If you say so, better than what's-his-name. I only remember the nickname you use.”  
“Fuckboy?”  
“I hate it, when you use that name. Yes him. At least on your side the world is simple.”  
“You're part of this parliament, right?”  
“Yes. Me and Diana might not always see things the same way, but including the ability for public servants to prevent bad laws into the conditions for the coalition, was smart. If it wasn't for people like this damn woman Kepetri.”  
“I'm surprised to hear, that you are willing to work with Sydney, but draw the line at Kepetri.”  
“Don't confuse populists and demagogues! They might both say what the riff-raff wants to hear, but Diana is sincere about her ideals. That means whenever she doesn't see people like me as the source of the problem, I can work with her. I am honestly surprised, why she hasn't made Kepetri disappear yet. She just causes problems and gives us all a bad name!”  
“I guess it goes both ways: As long as these assholes are around, you see Sydney as a potential ally instead of a threat, while she can point to these people to advertise her 'no power for anybody'-platform.”  
“I never thought about it like that”, her mother smiled, “That's why I wanted you to move back in with me. Please don't die up there.”  
“I think, we'll meet again, before the mission starts.”  
“Of course. But by now Marcus should be done with Lexa and I can tell, that you're uncomfortable.”

Lexa had waited for Clarke by the door. Clarke had not expect Marcus to give Lexa good news, but her friend appeared to be both angry and deeply concerned.  
“Do you want to talk about it?”  
Lexa thought a moment before answering: “The Icequeen has joined the board.”  
“The Icequeen?”  
“The chieftess of Azgeda. They are not part of the snake-throne. They used to, but she is devious. She left right after the alliance-army was split up. She is the reason, why I don't plan on claiming the throne. I rarely had to do with her and yet she expertly managed to be a thorn in my side.”  
“Well, that certainly sounds, like I could give you moral support!”  
“You're the best! I do have a trick up my sleeve, but I don't really want to use it.”  
“You won't need to. You are honourable, smart and brave. Nothing she could say or do could jeopardise your position here!”  
Lexa kissed her.  
“I am so glad, I stared at your tits.”  
Clarke laughed: “I might be persuaded to show them to you again, if I could get my hands on this magnificent ass of yours again!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just gals being pals. Fucking and changing old habits on a whim to be with each other in a purely amicable way.


End file.
